


Emptiness

by Camellianswer



Category: Rockman X | Mega Man X
Genre: Dissociation, Gen, Mental Breakdown, Pre-X8, Workplace, descent into insanity, pushing friends away
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-03-08 14:24:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18896428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Camellianswer/pseuds/Camellianswer
Summary: After a long and difficult period in his life, Lumine considers the possibilities of simply letting go...





	Emptiness

 

 _This emptiness is all I have left._ He quietly marveled at the tenacity of the sensation. In other instances, contact with his friend evoked pleasurable feelings. This time…nothing broke through the cloud. Even as low as he felt, he could still analyze himself with cold detachment. Perhaps that was the problem. It was like he was no longer alive; merely a test subject under the observation of a cool, calculating scientist.

“Lumi? You still there?”

He couldn’t even bring himself to tell Axl not to give him nicknames. He was too tired. In his head, tired. Empty. From afar he seemed to notice his reactions and lack of movement, and it aroused dim contempt in him. “Call back later, Axl.”

“What? But hey, we—”

“I SAID call back later.” Anger was quick to surface, and he had the disquieting awareness that if he didn’t get Axl off the line soon, he’d say or do something regrettable. “I will call you another time. I need solitude at present.”

Axl was a little shaken. “Oh…okay. It’s cool, man. I’ll just…” Lumine hung up before he could finish. He eased himself back on the floor and felt darkness close in. Consuming emptiness, that was all that he could feel. An assortment of emotional reactions presented themselves, but he didn’t care to summon the strength to yield to them, so he lay very still.

Lumine shut his eyes and let the data flow wash over him. Words, impulses, thick and fast and all of them painful. Terribly painful. But this time, none of them escaped into audibility. It was like he was dead, and only the sting remained. A husk, a broken shell in which emptiness and fire warred for dominance. That was all he was now.

A tiny ping reached him. A good twenty seconds passed before he turned his head, slowly, to see a message on the wall Patch. Arpeggio. The nature of the data flow shifted to Arpeggio.

“What do you want from me this time? It’s all it is. Taking. You only speak to me because you desire something from me. What is it you truly think of me? You must think I am stupid, because you continue to smile as if I do not know.” Arpeggio sent another message. Lumine’s face twisted. The emptiness was beginning to fill up again. But it felt…strange.

“The truth is, you find me to be a source of entertainment. Switching between using me for my gifts and laughing at me because I am not like you.” His hands curled into fists. His eyes felt hot, and he was dimly aware that tears were streaming down his face. “I do not care. I would never be like you. Your kind is useless, not me. Your kind, humans and Reploids alike, are all useless. I would sooner wipe you all out than desire to fit in among you. Yes…” That guy sent another message, and Lumine pressed his hand to the wall, suddenly trembling with rage. Self-awareness dropped, but he didn’t care. This wasn’t empty; it was something, what exactly, he wasn’t sure, but it was something and that was enough. He reached out along the conduits linked to the Patch, and once it was firmly set in his mind, he struck.

A single, hot burst of bright energy surged from his hand, along the thin wires, and overloaded the tiny screen. It flashed and then burst into flames, the acrid odor of burning plastic settling low to the ground around Lumine.

He watched with satisfaction. He couldn’t do the same to Arpeggio, not yet at least, but for now this was enough. Slowly he came back to himself, already crafting en excuse for the destruction. Tell them it was a faulty capacitor. He was a genius; whatever he told them, they’d believe, even if it was meaningless jargon. He smiled. Fools. They were the fools. But for now, he’d play along. He’d play the fool for them. Get close enough. And then…fry them like that Patch.

A laugh rose up in his throat. The tears were still falling, and nothing he could do would stop them – must be some kind of system error – but he laughed. Long and loud and rough. It felt good. Strange, but good.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> My reasoning for Lumine's choice to become the villain differs slightly from X8. But no spoilers!


End file.
